Press Release: Equal Parenting and DNA testing

by Geoff Holland

prism@optusnet. com.au

R O L L I N G T H U N D E R R E V I E W !

____________ ___

Moral duty of Family Court to review past court orders

In playing God, the Family Court system has caused immeasurable damage to children of separated parents. Far from acting in the best interests of children, they have alienated children from their fathers ever since the Family Law Act was introduced in 1975.

Further, the Family Court's blatant prejudice against fathers and the alienation of their children has both directly and indirectly caused the suicide of many hundreds of fathers in Australia.

The Family Court mantra has always been, and still is: "We are not interested in the rights of parents. We are only interested in the best interests of the children."

So, when the Family Court was handing down every second weekend contact to fathers, was this in the best interests of children ? Or now that they are handing out equal parenting time - is this in the best interests of children ?

You cannot have it both ways - either the best interests of children were being served when fathers only had two days a fortnight access (14%), or now that they are being granted 50% access. The Family Court system was either wrong before, or it is wrong now.

And if it was wrong then, then it is still wrong - by not allowing a review of cases decided before the changes in legislation which came into effect in July 2006. Children are still being alienated from their fathers.

The reason the Federal Government does not want to allow a review of cases decided prior to the changes effected in July 2006 is because of the extra workload and financial strain it would place on the Family Court system. Obviously saving dollars is more important than serving the best interests of children.

The silent hypocrisy is deafening.

Fathers who have been prejudiced in the past, and have had the interests of their children compromised at the hands of the Family Court system, demand that the Family Court system recognise the recent changes to the Family Law Act ("the most significant changes since the introduction of the Family Law Act in 1975" - Attorney General's Department) as a "substantial change of circumstance" and allow a review of previous court orders - without prejudice.